Supreme Court sets Kajubi’s appeal date
Sep 06, 2011
CITY tycoon, Godfrey Kato Kajubi, has run back to the Supreme Court in an effort to block an order for his retrial for a ritual murder of a-12-year-old boy.
By Hillary Nsambu
CITY tycoon, Godfrey Kato Kajubi, has run back to the Supreme Court in an effort to block an order for his retrial for a ritual murder of a-12-year-old boy.
However, his new lawyer, Moses Kabega, told The New Vision over the weekend that he is yet to file his grounds of appeal in the court this week.
The also could not say whether Kajubi would be available in court at the hearing of his appeal.
Since the Court of Appeal’s judgment that was handed out in his absence mid-last year, Kajubi went underground and he is being sought by the Ugandan security that was ordered to bring him back to court for his retrial.
Immediately after the Court of Appeal had ordered that Kajubi should be re-arrested and retried for the murder of the minor before another judge, he went to the Supreme Court to block the order for re-arrest saying that he had filed a notice of appeal in court, showing that he intended to file a substantive appeal later.
However, the Supreme Court rejected his application saying that Kajubi should not hide behind a notice of appeal to evade arrest and face the retrial.
In his appeal challenging Kajubi’s acquittal, the DPP had asked the Court of Appeal to either put Kajubi straight on his defence or, alternatively, order his retrial before another judge.
According to the Supreme Court’s criminal registry, Kajubi’s appeal would be heard on September 19, 2011 on which the court’s criminal appeals session in which at least 16 appeals including Kajubi’s are scheduled to be heard.
Originally, Kajubi was indicted for the ritual murder of Joseph Kasirye, who was killed on October 27, 2008 at Kayugi village, Mukungwe sub-County in Masaka District.
The court heard that the murderers cut off the minor’s head, his genitals and tapped his all his blood in a jerry-can and took them away with them. They dumped the torso in a swamp at Kayugi.
However, after the full trial of the case, the trial court acquitted Kajubi on ‘a no case to answer’ submission made by his lawyer MacDosman Kabega.
However, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) appealed against the judgment and; the Court of Appeal, on November 23, 2010 unanimously ruled that with the available evidence on record the initial trial court had made a mistake to rule that the state had failed to prove that Kajubi had no case to answer.
“This case shocked the entire nation. It is in the interest of Kajubi and the people of Uganda that a just solution be found. At risk of an amount of delayed justice, we think that the only viable resolution of the conflict between justice and impunity is to order that there be a retrial in the High Court of Uganda before another Judge,†the Court of Appeal ruled.
During the initial trial, the witch doctor, Umaru Kateregga alias Bosco, in whose house the boy was slaughtered, told an open court that remained in utter disbelief that Kajubi and his henchman only known as “Stephen†had killed the boy in his (doctor’s) house as he was watching.
Kateregga also told the court that Kajubi took the boy’s head, his genitals and the blood with him and; he (Kajubi) ordered them to dump the torso in a swamp at Kayugi.
Upon arrest the next day, Kateregga led the police to the swamp where they recovered it.
The Court of Appeal quashed Kajubi’s acquittal in his absence and since then, the state agents started looking for him with a view to re-arrest, detain and indict him afresh. However, he has remained underground.
CITY tycoon, Godfrey Kato Kajubi, has run back to the Supreme Court in an effort to block an order for his retrial for a ritual murder of a-12-year-old boy.
However, his new lawyer, Moses Kabega, told The New Vision over the weekend that he is yet to file his grounds of appeal in the court this week.
The also could not say whether Kajubi would be available in court at the hearing of his appeal.
Since the Court of Appeal’s judgment that was handed out in his absence mid-last year, Kajubi went underground and he is being sought by the Ugandan security that was ordered to bring him back to court for his retrial.
Immediately after the Court of Appeal had ordered that Kajubi should be re-arrested and retried for the murder of the minor before another judge, he went to the Supreme Court to block the order for re-arrest saying that he had filed a notice of appeal in court, showing that he intended to file a substantive appeal later.
However, the Supreme Court rejected his application saying that Kajubi should not hide behind a notice of appeal to evade arrest and face the retrial.
In his appeal challenging Kajubi’s acquittal, the DPP had asked the Court of Appeal to either put Kajubi straight on his defence or, alternatively, order his retrial before another judge.
According to the Supreme Court’s criminal registry, Kajubi’s appeal would be heard on September 19, 2011 on which the court’s criminal appeals session in which at least 16 appeals including Kajubi’s are scheduled to be heard.
Originally, Kajubi was indicted for the ritual murder of Joseph Kasirye, who was killed on October 27, 2008 at Kayugi village, Mukungwe sub-County in Masaka District.
The court heard that the murderers cut off the minor’s head, his genitals and tapped his all his blood in a jerry-can and took them away with them. They dumped the torso in a swamp at Kayugi.
However, after the full trial of the case, the trial court acquitted Kajubi on ‘a no case to answer’ submission made by his lawyer MacDosman Kabega.
However, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) appealed against the judgment and; the Court of Appeal, on November 23, 2010 unanimously ruled that with the available evidence on record the initial trial court had made a mistake to rule that the state had failed to prove that Kajubi had no case to answer.
“This case shocked the entire nation. It is in the interest of Kajubi and the people of Uganda that a just solution be found. At risk of an amount of delayed justice, we think that the only viable resolution of the conflict between justice and impunity is to order that there be a retrial in the High Court of Uganda before another Judge,†the Court of Appeal ruled.
During the initial trial, the witch doctor, Umaru Kateregga alias Bosco, in whose house the boy was slaughtered, told an open court that remained in utter disbelief that Kajubi and his henchman only known as “Stephen†had killed the boy in his (doctor’s) house as he was watching.
Kateregga also told the court that Kajubi took the boy’s head, his genitals and the blood with him and; he (Kajubi) ordered them to dump the torso in a swamp at Kayugi.
Upon arrest the next day, Kateregga led the police to the swamp where they recovered it.
The Court of Appeal quashed Kajubi’s acquittal in his absence and since then, the state agents started looking for him with a view to re-arrest, detain and indict him afresh. However, he has remained underground.